Did you watch the Community Organizer last night? If you are like me, it pains me to even see this man in action, addressing the people from the Oval Office. Never did I imagine that this man would be such a danger to this nation .. or at least a danger to the few Americans who still value freedom and liberty, free enterprise and the idea of personal excellence. What incentive does any young producer have to succeed and work-hard, when all Barack Obama and his liberal cadre in Washington want to do is take your earnings for redistribution ... for redistribution to people who have done absolutely not one thing to actually earn it? (Well, aside from voting for Obama, that is.)
How is the gimme mentality going to foster a new wave of growth and entrepreneurship among small business owners and innovators? The answer is that it is not, and that is exactly the point. Despite what the teleprompter may tell you, Barack Obama doesn't give a damn about your small business or your success. This man cares about nothing but government and retaining power. I would also say that he doesn't give a damn about your wealth, but that would be incorrect - he DOES care about your wealth so long as you earn enough to hand it over to the government and let the government decide where it should be spent. And that is exactly what is happening to BP ..
The Obama administration has made it official: If he has his way BP will no longer be responsible for the claims process for those affected by the oil spill. The Obama White House determined that "the best way to prevail on BP is to take the claims process away from BP." That's complete nonsense. Here's what The Community Organizer really meant to say last night:
"The best way to make sure that the government gets the credit for helping those who are affected by this tragic accident, rather than a private sector company getting the credit, is for us to seize control of the claims process."
Now why exactly are they taking this process away from BP? Has BP said that it would not honor the claims and pay any economic costs of the oil spill? No. Has BP been sluggish in paying claims submitted thus far? No. In fact, about half of the 42,000 claims submitted thus far have been worked through by a team of more than 600 claims personnel. Would you call that inefficient? If you want inefficient let's go back to the days of the Cash for Clunkers program. Do you remember dealers across the country screaming about how hard it was to get their money from Obama's federal government? Dealers were promised that they would be paid within 10 days. Yeah, right. Define "day." Needless to say, the government failed miserably to live up to its commitment. For some, it took months to receive their checks in the mail. Some businesses found themselves on the verge of having to shut down when the checks finally arrived. Some savvy dealers saw the writing on the wall and quit the program altogether. Remember?
Nobody in their right mind (which excludes most ObamaZombies) would suggest that the government can do a better job of processing and paying these claims than the private sector. So the question remains: Why is the Obama administration doing this? Well .. I've already told you. Read the highlighted paragraph above. Barack Obama wants to make sure that when it is all said and done, the "savior" in this crisis is government, not BP. Even the residents of Louisiana are now saying that George Bush did a better job of responding to Katrina than Obama is responding to the oil spill. For the grand lover of all that is government, this is completely unacceptable. Barack Obama has a centrally-planned economy to build, and the narrative of a corporation acting responsibility does not fit in to the vision of an evil and malicious corporate America that he has been trying to build. In other words, Obama must step in to prevent the evil corporate giant BP from accomplishing the task. Government - the ObamaGovernment - must be the savior here. Obama isn't doing so well in the polls right now. Maybe taking down the evil BP giant can help him with some of the more ignorant voters out there.
Make no mistake - this step has nothing to do with caring about oil spill victims or making sure that BP pays up. It has everything to do with making government look like the hero. He will do everything to convince you that pelicans would be forever covered in oil and we would be eating blackened shrimp for the rest of our lives, if it hadn't been for Barack Obama, the Democrats and their imperial federal government. Former Clintonista Paul Begala is writing today that Obama is showing his personal commitment. Begala is right .. but commitment to what? To the elevation of government in every thread of American life, that's what.
Seething with anger, Obama is hoping that you will put aside all rational and logical thinking skills and actually believe that government - an entity not in the oil business -- will be able to handle this crisis more efficiently than BP. Maybe this one will be the exception! But if I were you, I wouldn't bet whatever is left of your 401(k). In the dictionary of common sense, waste, fraud and abuse are synonyms for government. Here are just a few facts to noodle through from the Heritage Foundation:
The federal government made at least $72 billion in improper payments in 2008. Are you grasping that figure? Here we have PrezBO demanding what? About $20 billion from BP so that the government can be in charge of handling claims, and this very same government squandered $72 billion in improper payments in 2008? Someone ask BP how much they wasted in improper payments that year.
Government auditors spent the past five years examining all federal programs and found that 22 percent of them -- costing taxpayers a total of $123 billion annually -- fail to show any positive impact on the populations they serve. Hopefully that is no surprise to you. These programs may have failed to show a positive impact on the people government was intending to help ... but they damn sure increased the power of government. So ... mission accomplished.
A GAO audit classified nearly half of all purchases on government credit cards as improper, fraudulent, or embezzled. If you ran your household or your business that way you would be bankrupt in a heartbeat. Only government can get away with that crap - and its because you LET government get away with it by continuing to elect the same power-hungry imbeciles who got us into this situation in the first place.
Federal agencies are delinquent on nearly 20 percent of employee travel charge cards, costing taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars annually. Oh yeah ... they're going to get these oil spill claims paid quickly and accurately, aren't they?
Those are just generalities about the spending habits of our federal government. But how about a recent "crisis" example where the government stepped in to allocate claims. Let's turn to Hurricane Katrina ...
Fraud related to Hurricane Katrina spending is estimated to top $2 billion. What the hell. Who really cares? Just add it to the debt, right?
Auditors discovered that 900,000 of the 2.5 million recipients of emergency Katrina assistance provided false names, addresses, or Social Security numbers or submitted multiple applications. We're talking over one-third here. And you think that by some magic the doling out of BP's money is going to go any more smoothly?
Lawmakers diverted $13 million from Hurricane Katrina relief spending to build a museum celebrating the Army Corps of Engineers -- the agency partially responsible for the failed levees that flooded New Orleans. What guarantee do we have that government won't similarly divert BP funds to some politically-favored projects?
These are just a few examples of government inefficiency. We could go back through history and I guarantee you that you cannot find one government-run program that a rational person could consider efficient. But as I've already said, that is not really the point here, is it?
Obama is living a dream right now . Another wonderful crisis he can exploit to further increase the power of our Imperial Federal Government. Where does this end? Maybe the new paradigm will be that when the cost of some disaster exceeds a certain set sum, the responsible parties and/or the insurance companies with claims to pay will be required to turn that money over to some federal agency ... The Federal Disaster Payment Authority (or something like that) ... which will in turn make the payments to the aggrieved parties. Nice. Let's let politics rather than good business practices decide where the money is going to go.
